Collapsing Gender in Competitive Bodybuilding

This paper discusses conceptualisations of gender, sexuality and the body in the sport of bodybuilding. The paper debates the way the pursuit of bodybuilding produces complex social practices of body discipline. Identity work in the sport of bodybuilding is presented as complex and ambiguous because it rejects traditional categorisations of gender. One reading of gender representations in competitive bodybuilding which is discussed in this paper suggests that female bodybuilders present a threat to a traditional understanding of gender. This reading is critiqued on the basis of ethnographic research covering bodybuilding by both women and men. The paper concludes that aspects of ambivalence and contradiction in sport need to be seen as potentials for the developments of social practices and new identities.